A common complaint physical therapists will hear from patients is pain with prolonged standing. While this can be caused by a variety of factors, one of the first things we will look at is standing posture.
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Most ailments get worse at night, whether you are sick, or you are dealing with pain. There’s a simple reason for it; well two. It’s from the lack of two things: cortisol and movement.
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Our modern world has become easy. We live in climate controlled houses, get in our climate controlled cars, and climate controlled offices and gyms. Over time, this makes us fragile. Ever notice that kids seem to be immune to swimming in cold water yet you get sick every time you travel? We have “endpoints” that our bodies get used to and if we don’t expose our bodies to difficult things, those endpoints narrow and then when we have to do something difficult, the body will let you know that it’s too much. Maybe you get sick, or maybe you develop pain. Whatever system in your body is most vulnerable, it shows up like a canary in a coal mine.
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If you have difficulty doing push ups because you’re missing wrist range of motion, this blog is for you. Wrists can be limited, like any other joint, by muscle and capsule. A reminder; capsules are the ligamentous ‘sack’ around all joints. They can stiffen from lack of movement or injury. Muscles get stiff from underuse, or overuse. Or, as I like to say, ‘a weak muscle gets overused faster’.
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Ankles get stiff, particularly in dorsiflexion. This can have all kinds of consequences, but one that isn’t talked about is the relationship between ankle and hip.
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Breathing seems like such a simple thing, and it is in a sense. However, when you think about how many breaths we take a day, altering your breathing can have a huge impact. When I have a patient with low back pain, I’ll always look at their breathing pattern. 9 times out of 10, I find that they are chest breathing. This is not necessarily a ‘wrong pattern’, but it gives me some insight into how their full system is operating. To explore this, I’ll explain 5 ways breathing can have a role in reducing low back pain.
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If you have numbness or tingling, or radiating pain in the arm, chances are there is a nerve that is either being compressed or is irritated. This can happen in numerous places such as the cervical spine, a muscle in the forearm, or it can be thoracic outlet syndrome.
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The Tibialis Posterior is a muscle that lines the inside (medial) part of the lower leg along the shin. Its insertion is on 2 bones; the navicular and the medial cuneiform. It’s an important stabilizer of the arch and it plantarflexes and inverts the ankle. It commonly gets weak and can cause irritation. I also find that ‘plantar fasciitis’ is often diagnosed, but it’s the tibialis posterior that is really the problem.
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I’ve seen this countless times; a client walks into my office, terrified of their recent MRI. They’ve got several disc bulges and couldn’t move for a few days after lifting something heavy. Surgery has been suggested. However, the whole time, it’s just muscle.
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I was going to call this article “Stress and Chronic Pain” but I don’t think the word stress fully encapsulates what this is about. Stressors can absolutely trigger chronic pain, but not just perceived stress. Some of the lifestyle decisions we make can lead to something called HPA axis dysfunction, which dysregulates cortisol. From there, many systems of the body are impacted and we stay in a chronic state of pain. Have you ever noticed that pain increases following a poor night's sleep? This article will explain the mechanism.
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There are many reasons for pain behind the knee. Your hamstring and gastroc both cross over the knee, so one of these muscles could be irritated. You could have a Baker’s cyst (benign), or have a lymphatic backup. One other possibility is an irritation of the popliteus.
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Breathwork has been a popular topic lately, and for good reason. It has a big return on investment. There are surprisingly many ways to breathe, and for something we do so often, a subtle change can have a huge impact. This article will focus solely on how breathing and stress are related.
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We all know that stress is bad for you, but the consequences of chronic stress are perhaps more far-reaching than you may imagine. Some amount of stress can be good, such as hormetic stress. However, high levels or chronic stress can negatively impact your blood glucose levels, setting you up for diabetes.
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I’ve been playing hockey my whole life, and as a result I’ve had to deal with groin strains. It’s a common hockey injury. In short, a strain occurs when the activity outmatches the capacity of the muscle.
Unfortunately, many of us have to sit in front of a computer for work. It’s not natural to sit in a slumped position for 8 plus hours and unless you’re very purposeful in taking brakes and standing up, it’s likely you’ve dealt with some upper back pain.
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If you google what causes GERD or heartburn, you will most likely find foods that cause too much acid such as tomatoes, chocolate, coffee and alcohol. However, low stomach acid may be to blame.
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There has been a lot of talk about longevity lately, with the understanding of telomeres, sirtuins, and the rise in popularity of the work of David Sinclair. An interesting theory has arisen from Dr. Bruce Ames, who has been a molecular biologist and in the nutrition space for decades. He came up with the term “Triage Theory” as a way to understand how the body uses micronutrients.
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There are several reasons to avoid this. I’m going to exclude all the social ones such as the art of conversation, being an example for the young, etiquette, etc. The main thing I want to focus on is…digestion.
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Breathing may seem simple, but you’d be surprised at how many ways we can breathe. The human body has many redundancies, and that’s a good thing for survival. This is why we have two holes in our face; our mouth and our nose. That’s two ways to exchange O2 and CO2. We have a ‘backup system’ in case one isn’t working well.
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“I hold my stress in my neck”. This is one of those things you hear on a daily basis as a physio. Most often, the pain is in the upper trap. There are several reasons for this, but the most common one I see is simply an imbalance. It shows up like a shrug as someone raises their arm up, especially with resistance.
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